VietNamNet Bridge – The pair of elephants in Yok Don National Park was killed for tusks, according to a report by the Elephant Conservation Center of Dak Lak Province sent to the local Department of Agriculture and Rural Development on August 27.

According to the report, the elephants were killed in Ea Bung commune, Ea Sup district of Dak Lak province. They are between 22 to 25 years old.

The male elephant is 3.7 meters long, 2.5 meters tall. Its head was cut off to take its tusks and skull. Its trunk was also severed. The autopsy determined that the elephants died because of outside factors.

The center said that the two elephants and the male elephant which was killed in early March 2012 are of the same herd.

To date, five wild elephants in Dak Lak Province died, including three mature and two baby elephants.

The center’s Director, Mr. Huynh Trung Luan, said the life of the only herd of wild elephants in Yok Don National Park, numbering about 29 individuals, will be unstable because the only two male elephants in the herd were killed.

“If elephants are not protected and the elephant killers are not found out for severe punish, similar cases will occur. The conflict between elephants and humans will get serious,” Luan warned.